If you haven't ridden a camel...

There's nothing like the firsthand experience of visiting another culture. Meeting local residents, tasting exotic flavors, visiting historic sites, viewing different architecture, all play an important role in the travel experience. Capturing the journey with photographs is a way of preserving the memories, and also sharing them.

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are being used to share travel experiences as they occur. Imagine my surprise when I logged on to see a photo of my son on a camel in Morocco! Just days before I had scrolled through a hundred or so photos of beautiful architecture which excited me because it let me know how much he was getting out of the trip. However, it was the photo of him riding a camel in the Sahara Desert that made the trip real for me because it's a record of him doing something he's never done before and won't likely do again for years. Of course this is the photo that got the most activity on Facebook and is now his profile picture!